The Arizona Bracket Shoot

I write this post to give credit to where credit is due.  In February, the Rio Salado Vaqueros held one of their best Club events.  I can not commend the Vaqueros enough for the outstanding job they do especially their officers, Mule Train and Southwest KC.  They held their normal Arizona Bracket shoot but because of the cool weather it was extended to 7 rounds.  The Arizona Bracket shoot was the idea of Calaboose Bill when Noah Chance owned the Association of Arizona Gunslingers.  The thought was to give all shooters the opportunity of experiencing a magnificent shoot-off.  The Arizona Bracket shoot combines a no x format with magnificent 1 x shoot-off.  All shooters make the shoot-offs.  Shooters are seeded  in the shoot-off according the CFDA timeout report which is the standard for placings in CFDA events.

To illustrate how well it functions, I will relate the fate of five shooters at the February match. The luck of the draw was not kind to me. Four of the seven shooters I faced in the seeding rounds were on average 80 milliseconds quicker than me. What was worst, three of the four, when I shot them, were hitting better than 60%.  Had the event been a 3x elimination event, I would have been shuffled out near the bottom of the standings.  However, since it was no x event I was seeded 11th in the standings at the bottom of bracket A.  

A Plug!  Here is a plug for the Alleluia Competition and Training System. I would have won the event moving up through the shoot offs except I ran into another Alleluia shooter, Shady Mike.  We were shooting average (80% is just average) and he is 10 milliseconds quicker than me.  I finished in 5th place.  Two of the four quicker shooters finished in 2nd and 4th, Shady finished 3rd, and the other two quicker shooters finished well down in the pack.

Format Matters!  The Arizona Bracket shoot does a better job sorting the field than the elimination format because it mitigates the unfairness of the luck of the draw.  A shooter has the opportunity to recover from a tough draw.  In February, I was probably on that day, the 5th best shooter there and that is where I finished.  The main match whether it is at a club shoot or a title event is nothing more than a seeding match.  The event is sorting the shooters from top to bottom for shoot-off and placing purposes

Winter Range and Tombstone! Tomorrow the weather will break crisp but clear and we will beginning sorting the best of the west at the Winter Range Arizona Bracket Jackpot shoot.  Payout is 80% with the shooters being divided into 6 brackets.  It will be a blast. No one will be out of it until they get their x in a magnificent shoot-off.  If you can not make it, there is another Arizona Jackpot Shoot in Tombstone on March 23. Can't make that one, come to Pioneer Village, Arizona Territory, on March 30th, just a club shoot but probably more than 60 will be there.

"I ain't missing, bring me another shooter!" Alleluia Ruah